1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates generally to the automation of office procedures with respect to mail handling, and in particular comprises an automated envelope opener.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Business and government organizations presently receive enormous volumes of mail daily. For example, the large volumes of remittance mailings received by utility companies, petroleum companies, department stores and other retail enterprises, publishers, banks and other lending institutions, insurance companies, credit card operations, medical and dental group practitioners, taxing authorities, licensing bureaus, and a host of other types of activities, demonstrate the need for an efficient incoming mail handling capability for such organizations. The projections of the U.S. Post Office indicate that the daily volumes of such mailings will increase appreciably in the future. Use of automated envelope opening apparatus would be an essential feature of any efficient office procedure for handling such large volumes of mail.
The requirements for an efficient envelope opening apparatus that would be suitable for a high-volume mail handling operation are simple to state. First, the apparatus must be capable of a high rate of envelope throughput. Second, the apparatus must be capable of mechanically cutting an entire edge of each envelope so that "finish" cutting by hand will not be necessary. Third, the apparatus must be capable of cutting the edge of each envelope without damaging, or being damaged by, any of the contents thereof. The third requirement, that the apparatus not damage or be damaged by the contents of the envelope, is especially critical where the contents of the envelope might include tabulation cards, encoded checks or folded documents, or where the contents of the envelope might include documents that are attached together by metal paper clips or staples. In addition, it would be expected that an efficient envelope opening apparatus would be easy to operate, require minimum operator attention, and provide maximum safety to office personnel.
It should be noted that envelopes generally are not of uniform size and shape. Even in the case of remittance mailings where it is usual to provide customers with standardized return envelopes, customers may frequently choose to substitute odd-sized envelopes for various reasons. Furthermore, there are many other types of activities, including product promotions, commercial announcements, and coupon-return advertisements, which generate incoming correspondence mailed in envelopes that vary considerably in size and shape. It should also be noted that, even in the case of standardized return envelopes, the manufacturing specifications for such envelopes rarely require that the opposite edges of each envelope be strictly parallel. In other words, most envelopes are not perfect rectangles -- a fact that must be taken into account in the design of any automated apparatus for aligning an envelope edge with a cutting mechanism.
With presently available envelope opening machines, the problem of opening an edge of each envelope in a large stack of envelopes without damaging the contents of the envelopes has not been satisfactorily solved. Typically, with presently available envelope opening apparatus, quantities of unopened envelopes must first be placed in electrically operated jogging or vibrating machines to force the contents of each envelope away from the edge to be cut. Alternatively, the envelope opening procedure may require a manual operation wherein the operator tamps the envelopes, a handful at a time, against a table top to force the contents of each envelope away from the edge to be cut.
In addition, with many presently available envelope opening machines, it is necessary for the operator to manually hold the envelopes during the envelope cutting operation. The cuttting instrument of presently available envelope opening machines is typically a rotating-disk type of knife, which requires that a considerable portion of the envelope edge be exposed for cutting. With many presently available envelope opening machines, the operator must guide the envelopes manually toward the cutting station in order that the envelope edges to be cut will be properly aligned with respect to the cutting instrument.
With envelope opening machines known to the prior art, the envelope edge to be cut is not precisely referenced with respect to the alignment of the cutting instrument. Consequently, with such prior art machines, the cutting instrument must be set to cut an appreciable strip from the envelope edge so that a high proportion of envelopes fed to the cutting station will in fact be cut open. The cutting instrument setting is usually adjustable, but in practice it has been found necessary to use a setting of approximately 1/16 of an inch or more. Any smaller setting would result in incomplete cutting of too many of the envelopes in a batch of envelopes of typical size. Such a wide cut frequently results in damage to the contents of some envelopes, even where a jogging operation has preceded the cutting operation. Also, such a wide cut frequently causes paper clips or metal staples to become caught in the cutting blades, often damaging the cutting blades.
Furthermore, with envelope opening machines known to the prior art, the cutting operation is usually intermittent because of the necessity of first jogging or tamping each new batch of envelopes to be opened. Also, the requirement of operator attention to the feeding of envelopes toward the cutting station necessarily requires that the machine be operated at a throughput rate which is substantially less than the maximum possible operating speed of the cutting instrument.
In addition, with envelope opening machines known to the prior art, waste cuttings require special handling to be removed from the vicinity of the cutting station.